


Together

by Edgelord (lostlikeme)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 09:19:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15771201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostlikeme/pseuds/Edgelord
Summary: Together, they’re a world wonder with the combined fashion sense of a colorblind ballerina. In other words, perfect. (Or, the first time Steven and Pearl fuse.)





	Together

**Author's Note:**

> Although I didn't listen to it while writing, I thought a lot about the song [Together](https://youtu.be/TLkxUhNDRE0), by The XX when I working on this.

The cliff overlooking the beach is different at night. Here, they are more than just Steven and Pearl. Dusk has stretched their shadows out in front of them longways as they sit beside each other, casting tall, hulking silhouettes in the dark green grass. In the fourth dimension, they both might have been diamonds. When Steven’s ankle brushes hers she jerks away, surprised by the sensation of his hair tickling the back of her calf.

Steven is too old, and the problem isn’t in numbers, it’s in the way he carries himself, the hair growing on his face, and the sheer mass of him, bigger and stronger than Pearl ever could have pictured herself. The issue isn’t merely his form, but the content of his character, the way he shifts without consciously changing shape. Conversely, Pearl feels incriminated by her own consistency - completely static.

“Shouldn’t I be better than this?”

She lifts her head from Seven’s broad shoulder and wipes her wet eyes on the back of her hand. When she turns to face him, he’s staring at her, glazed over and starry-eyed like he’s looking at something beautiful. Heat blooms like a fiery flower along the seam of their touching skin, stirring up something left by someone else.

“I think you’re perfect the way you are.”

It’s a very Steven thing to say, in a way that reminds Pearl exactly of Rose. He touches her cheek, almost as if to soothe the sadness welling up inside her. Pearl is nostalgic for the reverse, desperate to feel competent and purposeful again. He brushes his thumb over the pearl on her forehead and she moves without thinking, stretching her neck to reach him, pressing their lips together.

The kiss tunnels into her heart like white lightning, illuminating her gem. Pearl’s body is preparing to fuse, she’s half expecting the blinding flash when Steven’s eyes pop open and he looks at her. His hair is twice as long now, a lion’s mane of deep, tube-like curls. He has the same doe eyes, soft and sensitive and undeniably shell-shocked. Before he can reject her, Pearl pulls away, covering her mouth to hide her shame.

“Steven I’m so sorry!”

She tries to run but Steven closes his fingers around her tiny wrist before she slips away. Pearl jerks to a halt and stares at him, watching him slide his hands over hers, cupping them carefully as he drops to one knee. Even from this position, Pearl feels small and confused.

“Please stay.” He swallows hard. “It’s okay, really…that was my bad.”

Pearl shakes her head and Steven pulls himself up from the ground, brave-faced and sure of himself. He always manages to be move forward despite the looming footprint his mother left behind, on this planet, and on Pearl’s heart.

“None of this is your fault.” Pearl’s jaw tightens. “I should have better self-control.”

Steven’s nostrils flare before he pulls her into a searing hug that scalds her from the inside out. He swallows her up with his arms and lifts her into the air, burying his head in the crook of her delicate neck. Her ribs struggle to expand around another shallow breath as he spins in a circle, clutching her close. Pearl has waited and waited and waited, but here she is in Steven’s arms, weightless; safe. 

“You’re just...you’re so big.”

Pearl sinks into the warmth, flooding with affection. The cold breeze breaks against Steven’s back, shielding her from the chill. She melts a little bit instead, softening against his chest, cradled by the steady thump of his heart. When she tries to hold him around the middle, her hands don’t meet and he laughs.

“I couldn’t stay a little kid forever.”

“I know.” Pearl takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. Steven’s pseudo-mortality is another thing she can’t bring herself to think about. “Sometimes you’re so much like Rose that I -” Her eyes well up with fresh tears and her carefully crafted veneer cracks like a broken mirror. She hides her face in his shirt. “I can’t help it.”

“Hey, don’t cry.”

She sniffles hard and dries her eyes on the front of his shirt, crumpling the fabric in her fists and making it rise up above his belly, exposing the bottom half of his pink gem under the glimmering night sky. It rubs against her when he squeezes her tight, digging into her hip, sharp and solid and familiar. 

“I’m sorry.” Pearl pushes at his arms and he gently lowers her feet to the ground. She points her nose to the stars to meet his gaze. “It isn’t right to put all this all on you.”

Steven drops a hand to her shoulder, crawling his fingers over her collarbone and across her neck. He grazes the hollow of her throat before cupping her cheek. Pearl is shaking like a malfunctioning cellular phone, knees buckling like they might give out. 

“Don’t be sorry.” Steven tucks one arm around the small of her back, tugging her closer, until she’s flush against his glowing gem. “I’m big now, remember? I can handle it.”

The tide against the cliffside drowns everything out, until all Pearl can hear is the beat of two drums converging into one. Steven leans down to kiss her forehead and light bursts from inside Pearl’s gem, white-hot and undiluted. He lifts her effortlessly into the air with his other arm and they fuse like two magnets from opposite poles - without really trying. 

The resulting gem is a natural formation, a three eyed blond spitfire with Pearl’s pomposity and Steven’s shit-eating grin. His red star shirt hangs off one shoulder, cropped short to show off the gem shining from behind a sheer camisole. Together they’re a world wonder with the combined fashion sense of a color blind ballerina. 

In other words, perfect.

“Steven and Pearl finally fused!”

The ocean whispering turns out to be Amethyst shouting at the top of her lungs. Pearl panics, trying to twist out of the intimacy. They pull apart like fresh adhesive: slowly, grasping, clinging to each other for more. Steven catches Pearl as they drop, rolling onto his back to break her fall. Her cheeks light up blue with embarrassment when she realizes everyone is staring.

Garnet grins. “I called it.”

Lapis rolls her eyes and Peridot scoffs. 

“Everyone called it! I’m pretty sure even the clods back on Homeworld saw this coming.”

“I still called it.”

**Author's Note:**

> [This](https://i.imgur.com/f0uYpgM.png) is something like how I imagine Rainbow Quartz for this fic. (Art is not my own)


End file.
